Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Amazing isometric stealth tactics game, set in a shogunate Japan.
Oh who doesn’t remember an old time classic, Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines? And yes, it’s an easy way to say what Shadow Tactics are, if you want to simplify it. And my first impressions were exactly the same. But to be honest, it’s unfair to say that - this game is so much better in so many aspects, that for me it’s the best modern game in that category.
I must say, I’m not a big fan of Japanese culture. Mostly, because the general anime-like cuteness and weirdness is totally not fitting with me (sorry weebs). That is not the case here - the story and the settings is real, serious and adult. It perfectly shows how the shogunate worked, being torn apart by many wars, what samurai culture was and how duty and honour was important. Although the game isn’t very cheerful, it’s not uptight - there are very interesting conversations between characters, sometimes quite joyful, but still mostly focused on the task at hand and dire situations. I found that this was balanced perfectly.
About the characters.. along your journey, as the story unfolds (more about the story later, which is a really big part of it) your team gets bigger, until you met all of 5 characters that you can control. But every mission will be different, not all of them will be always available (or at least not from the start of the mission). And all of those characters are really well done. With distinct features (both in character and gameplay), very loveable and really well written. Their reactions to events, interactions between them - it just adds a perfect touch to the game. I’m sure I will remember all of them, including their names, for quite a long time after finishing it.
Gameplay wise, oh gosh, I so wanted to play a game like that for so long. And I was impressed how well done it is and how improved and modernized. It’s an isometric stealth game, based on tactics. To oversimplify it - you control a team of “ninjas” and you need to sneak somewhere, steal something, kill someone and all those shenanigans. It’s all controlled by the story, and very well fit, but the gameplay is the meaty part. Controlling a couple of different characters at once, in real time without a pause. Each of them with different abilities and skills. Enemies with limited vision, patrol routes. Things that we know. But there are so many small details, that all add up so immensely, making the game a real masterpiece (and a really hard one, for that!). To just pick a few of them: terrain elevation matters (limits vision, you can go through roofs and other things too), 2 fields of vision (full and limited one, not seeing crouching characters), light sources affecting vision, noise (yes, different abilities have different “noise range”), special characters (like Strawhats, that never leave their post, or Samurais which are very tough to kill solo and can see through disguises), very different characteristic of our team (not only abilities; but if they can climb, enter water, or if they drag bodies or carry them). And probably much much more. It’s all sprinkled with excellent tools to plan your work - vision indicators for enemies (you can also mark a hotspot on the ground, to see if someone sees it), full control of camera rotation, highlighting of points of interest and one of the best mechanics - Shadow Mode. You can queue 1 action for every character and perform them all at once by a press of a button. This allows for some super time sensitive actions and allow to do an ultimately coordinated attacks.
What also needs to be said - the game is difficult, no argument here. You really need a lot of time to carry out your actions (and probably retry them, in case of failure), make a lot of planning (like checking out the patrol routes) and very often - just figuring out “how the hell am I supposed to get through here”. There were at least a couple of occasions that I got completely stuck, trying to figure out how to even progress a bit. But I always figured that out, getting that wonderful feel of accomplishment. For players that love the challenge even more, the game wonderfully gives a lot of possibilities to do it. Apart from even higher difficulty settings (for masochists probably), there are a lot of badges and challenges. They are uncovered when you play the mission for the first time, but if you want to replay it, you already know them and you can strive to achieve them - although, many of them are really REALLY tough.
But as I said already - all of this is perfectly composed by a great story. Not only the story is interesting and engaging, it justifies all the missions and actions in it. Even more - the story actually really unfolds during missions, or even completely change what will happen next. It’s really a big part of the game - not just “something something between the missions”, which happens in many games. And because the characters are so interesting and loveable (and contribute to the story so much), the events in the story can also be quite emotional and hard.
Last but not least, the sound layer. All the sounds in the game are really natural and sound really good. The music is very fitting, really giving the atmosphere of old Japan and those times. But probably the best thing in that regard is the characters voice-over. Even the guards and enemies have a great voice-over, but the main characters - yes, that’s how a great voice-over should be done! The voices are totally fitting, expressive and so so good. The game gives you an option of changing the voice-over language (not sure about the languages available, but I chose the original Japanese with English subtitles), and that’s probably the best one to choose. I didn’t check the English voice-over though, but the Japanese one (of course, I don’t understand it) was amazing. Yes, sometimes it was difficult to read the subtitles during the action, but they were so well fitting.
All of this consist for a great game. An amazing game even. I enjoyed it so much and I think it’s one of the best, if not the best, game of this genre, and I hope that great team stealth games like that will pop out more often!
My rating: 10/10
Playtime: 24h
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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun on Steam